In front of the gateway of the Great Mosque, in the centre of a masonry plinth about three feet high, stands an iron pillar about a foot in diameter at the base and twenty feet high. Close to the east of the gateway is the site of Mehmúd’s (a.d. 1442) Tower of Victory, traces of which remained as late as a.d. 1840. About fifty yards further east are the ruins of a great building called the Ashrafi Mehel, said to have been a Musalmán college. To the north-east a banner marks a temple and the local state offices. South the road passes between the two lines of small houses and huts that make modern Mándu. Beyond the village, among ruins and huge swollen baobab stems, the road winds south along a downward slope to the richly-wooded lowland, where stretches to the west the wide coolness of the Ságar Taláv or Sea lake. Its broad surface covering 600 acres is green with fanlike lotus leaves, reeds, and water-grasses. Its banks are rough with brakes of tangled bush from which, in uncramped stateliness, rise lofty mhauras, mangoes, kirnis, and pípals. To the east round a smaller tank, whose banks are crowned by splendid mangoes and tamarinds, stand the domes of several handsome tombs. Of some
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
Description. of these domes the black masses are brightened by belts of brilliant pale and deep-blue enamel. To the north of this overflow-pool a long black wall is the back of the smaller Jámá or congregation mosque, badly ruined, but of special interest, as each of its numerous pillars shows the uninjured Hindu Singh-múkh or horned face. By a rough piece of constructive skill the original cross corners of the end cupolas have been worked into vaulted Musalmán domes.[4]
From the Sea Lake, about a mile across the waving richly-wooded plain, bounded by the southern height of the plateau, the path leads to the sacred Rewa Kund or Narbada Pool, a small shady pond lined with rich masonry, and its west side enriched by the ruins of a handsome Bath or Hammám Khánah. From the north-east corner of the Rewa Pool a broad flight of easy stairs leads thirty or forty feet up the slope on whose top stands the palace of Báz Bahádur (a.d. 1551–1561) the last independent chief of Mándu.[5] The broad easy flight of steps ends in a lofty arched gateway through which a roomy hall or passage gives entrance into a courtyard with a central masonry cistern and an enclosing double colonnade, which on the right opens into an arched balcony overlooking the Rewa Kund and garden. Within this courtyard is a second court enclosed on three sides by an arched gallery. The roof of the colonnades, which are reached by flights of easy steps, are shaded by arched pavilions topped by cupolas brightened by belts of blue enamel.
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
Description. To the south of Báz Bahádur’s Palace a winding path climbs the steep slope of the southern rim of Mándu to the massive pillared cupolas of Rúp Mati’s palace, which, clear against the sky, are the most notable ornament of the hill-top. From a ground floor of heavy masonry walls and arched gateways stairs lead to a flat masonry terrace. At the north and south ends of the terrace stand massive heavy-eaved pavilions, whose square pillars and pointed arches support lofty deep-grooved domes. The south pavilion on the crest of the Vindhyan cliff commands a long stretch of the south face of Mándu with its guardian wall crowning the heights and hollows of the hill-top. Twelve hundred feet below spreads the dim hazy Nímár plain brightened eastwards by the gleaming coil of the Narbada. The north pavilion, through the clear fresh air of the hill-top, looks over the entire stretch of Mándu from the high shoulder of Songad in the extreme south-west across rolling tree-brightened fields, past the domes, the tangled bush, and the broad gray of the Sea Lake, to the five-domed cluster of Hoshang’s mosque and tomb, on, across a sea of green tree tops, to the domed roof-chambers of the Jaház and Tapela palaces, through the Dehli gateway, and, beyond the deep cleft of the northern ravine, to the bare level and the low ranges of the Málwa plain.
From the Rewa Pool a path, along the foot of the southern height among noble solitary mhauras and khirnis, across fields and past small clusters of huts, guides to a flight of steps which lead down to a deep shady rock-cut dell where a Muhammadan chamber with great open arched front looks out across a fountained courtyard and sloping scalloped water table to the wild western slopes of Mándu. This is Nilkanth, where the emperor Akbar lodged in a.d. 1574, and which Jehángír visited in a.d. 1617.[6]
From the top of the steps that lead to the dell the hill stretches west bare and stony to the Songad or Tárápúr gateway on the narrow neck beyond which rises the broad shoulder of Songad, the lofty south-west limit of the Mándu hill-top.[7]
PART II.—HISTORY.[8]
HISTORYThe history of Mándu belongs to two main sections, before and after the overthrow by the emperor Akbar in a.d. 1563 of the independent power of the Sultáns of Málwa.
Section I.—The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570.
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570.Of early Hindu Mándu, which is said to date from a.d. 313, nothing is known.[9] Hind spire stones are built into the Hindola palace walls; and the pillars of the lesser Jámá mosque, about a hundred yards from the east end of the sea or Ságar Lake, are Hindu apparently Jain. Of these local Hind chiefs almost nothing is known except that their fort was
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. taken and their power brought to an end by Sultán Shams-ud-dín Altamsh about a.d. 1234.[10] Dhár, not Mándu, was at that time the capital. It seems doubtful whether Mándu ever enjoyed the position of a capital till the end of the fourteenth century. In a.d. 1401, in the ruin that followed Timúr’s (a.d. 1398–1400) conquest of Northern India, a Pathán from the country of Ghor, Diláwar Khán Ghori (a.d. 1387–1405), at the suggestion of his son Alp Khán, assumed the white canopy and scarlet pavilion of royalty.[11] Though Dhár was Diláwar’s head-quarters he sometimes stayed for months at a time at Mándu,[12] strengthening the defences and adorning the hill with buildings, as he always entertained the desire of making Mándu his capital.[13] Three available inscriptions of Diláwar
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Málwa Sultáns, a.d. 1400–1570. Khán (a.d. 1387–1405) seem to show that he built an assembly mosque near the Ship Palace, a mosque near the Dehli Gate, and a gate at the entrance to Songaḍh, the south-west corner and citadel of Mándu, afterwards known as the Tárápúr Gate.